Travels to North Wales, UK

Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 3:10 am GMT
We arrived in Llanfairfechan, Llandudno yesterday, Tuesday, June 9, after 26 hours of travel from Portland, Oregon by plane, and finally by coach. The cloudy, cool weather made us feel right at home. Our bus ride took us through Liverpool and many small seaside towns. We knew immediately when we had crossed over into Wales because all the signs were in Welsh and English. We later found out that, by law, all signs must be in Welsh, any elected official must speak Welsh, and there are both totally Welsh, and combination Welsh and English schools, from preschool through vocational and preparatory.

We arrived at 5:30 pm GMT, in Bangor, a nearby college town and were met by Wil Simes, our local B&B host, driving a sporty red car, (his wife's, chosen because it had a larger boot), with the steering wheel on the right (wrong for us) side. He drove us through narrow lanes and up the hillsides above the village so we could get the view of the village and the surrounding countryside and the sea.

Llanfairfechan, my maternal grandfather's home, sits on the north side of Snowdonia National park, on the shore of a green valley which sweeps down to Liverpool Bay. The tops of the mountains are about 1,000 feet high, and rise dramatically from a very flat, green land. The tops are treeless and stony, with fingers of green extending up to the summits. The pastures are full of herds of hundreds of white sheep, and occasionally, herds of 20-30 brown and white cows (steers, actually). We were told that all the spring lambs had made their way (alas) to dinner tables. Most of the remaining sheep had been shorn of their winter coats, but looked quite fat.

Compared to Oregon, everything here seems to be on a smaller scale. The roads and lanes are narrow and winding, once you get off the throughways. The older towns and city centers are built on narrow winding streets, which lend a sense of adventure when you walk them. Most of the older town buildings in the centers are at least 200 years old of stone or brick, with slate roofs, and chimney pots. Modern post -WWII housing built are row houses and compact by our standards, with small gardens in the fronts and backs. Many of the newer one are “rendered” - covered in stucco over bricks Unfortunately, some of the downtown commercial streets show signs of hard economic times. Many shops are shuttered, or abandoned. Liverpool looked particularly hard hit, and we passed rows of very old row houses which had been abandoned or were used as squats. There are newer shopping centers on the outskirts of towns, which seem to attract most of the business.

In the countryside, the pastures are bordered by stone wall and hedgerows. The air here is much clearer than home, and even in Manchester and Liverpool there was no smog. We saw a group of 7 large cooling towers which resembled Trojan, but were for oil fired power plants between Manchester and Liverpool, and there were many windmill farms out on Liverpool Bay.

The village of Llanfairfechan is no exception to the economic hard times. The narrow high street winds about a block up a hill with lovely, but worn old 2 story buildings. Most of the remaining businesses look like those 50 years ago, similar to many small towns in Oregon. Years ago, the stone quarry and the slate quarry employed many men, but the main occupation now is in tourism. The main street is surrounded by row houses and an occasional detached house, many are owned by retirees or as vacation houses. There are lots of trees, mostly deciduous, but also pine and a monkey puzzle variety outside our B&B. The gardens are verdant with vines, shrubs and flowers, and the birds were singing an evening serenade as we walked home from the chips place. To bed, it is 4:30 am and even though my body says it is 8:30 pm, I need to adjust.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
We breakfasted in full English style: an egg, ham, sausage, beans, tater tots, toast, with butter and lemon marmalade, orange juice and coffee. Afterward, we waddled our way up the street to find the house my grandfather Robert Griffith, lived in. He and his younger brother, Rhys, emigrated to America in April of 1906, leaving parents and younger sister Myfanwy (Muh-von-wee). The Welsh custom is to name their houses, and this house was on the right side of a semi-detached called Cartref. My grandmother had visited her sister-in-law in 1948, and we had copies of pictures of the house taken at that time. As we wandered up the street, a nice young man drove by and stopped and asked if he could be of assistance. We showed him the picture and told him the name of Cartref, and he said “oh it is just around the corner”. We found it easily and knocked on the front door, but no one was home. A wonderful vegetable garden filled the lot in front of the house, there was a charming hedge arch which led to the small front yard, and the name plate, “Cartref” was still affixed to the front steps. Our B&B hostess, Beth Simes, and several other people also pointed out a farm holding above the house which is called Cae America. There was a street sign for it, and local lore says that it belonged to two brothers who emigrated to America! Currently, a housing development occupies part of it, with the other part awaiting development. We did not have time to claim my ancestral land, but may pursue the matter when we return;-) We later searched the two cemeteries for a marker for my great aunt Myfanwy, but no luck. The local librarian provided some contact information for the county archives, so I will try later to find out what happened to her.

We kept hiking up into the hills to find a Druid circle, which is like Stonehenge, but has not been restored. The weather started out with beach mist, alternating with clearing and a light shower, but we were dressed in our rain gear and pressed on. It was a delightful hike. First you go through the village, then up narrow roads through the farms, green and teeming with sheep, then onto a country lane and upward. Above the farms, the countryside is open and treeless with gorse and bracken fern and grass. There were multitudes sheep on the high pastures and wild horses as well. We found many stone circles, and some ruins which looked very ancient. There was a very touching memorial to some American WWII pilots who had crashed there in 1946. Local people had left carved crosses, and small bits of metal from the wrecked plane on the marker as a sign of respect. Our B&B hostess told us that the locals frequently leave flowers up there too.

The weather began clearing as we neared the top. We had waded through a boggy fen to get to what we thought was the “real” Druid circle, but were not convinced we had found it. I was getting tired and anxious to visit the local library to make inquiries about family history. Tom decided to try for a marker cairn atop the next ridge, and I made my way back to town. It was a beautiful hike back, and the sun started to come out. Tom got to the library about 15 minutes after I arrived , and had found the Druid's circle. We will have pictures later.

We had dinner at the local pub. I had steak and mushroom pie with a nice side salad and jacketed potatoes. Tom had curried chicken and rice, also with a side salad. We also had a half pint of the local ale served at cellar temperature. With our 7-8 mile walk, we figured we had earned it.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
We hired a taxi to take us to Conwy Castle, and then to pick us up and take us to the coach stop in Llandudno. Conwy Castle was built by Edward I in 1280 as one of his many castles built to conquer the Welsh people. It was built in 4 years time (using serf labor), and was a masterpiece of defense architecture. The Welsh were not easily subdued and managed to take back their land. They claim that they (as do the Scots) were never slaves. We have lots of pictures to show you.

We took the bus back to Manchester, where we stayed overnight, and caught the plane the next morning to Copenhagen, where we connected to Bergen. Manchester is an old, but vibrant city, and looks prosperous with much restoration of old buildings and much new construction. We went in search of and Irish session we had heard was held in a Manchester pub on Thursday through Sunday nights, but did not find it. Instead, we found a very nice restaurant and had a light (?) supper of soup, cheese olives, chorizo and chicken wings. We will need to start having a lighter diet or we will have to be wheeled off the plane when we get back to PDX.